Introduction:
Concerns about the impacts of global climate change and the dwindling reserves of nonrenewable fossil fuels, coupled with technological advances, have led to a dramatic increase in renewable energy being generated around the world. In this exercise we will analyze data from the top renewable energy– producing nations.
DATA SETS:
GRAPH TYPE:
1. To begin, look at the top five renewable energy producing nations for the years 2013 and 2014. To do so, select “Renewable Energy (Top Five)” from the drop-down Data Set menu and “Bar Graph” from the Graph Type menu. (The data are displayed in tonnes of oil equivalent, which is a normalized unit of energy that is useful for comparing different energy sources.) Which nation produced the most renewable energy in 2014?
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2. Which nation added the most renewable energy-generating capacity from 2013 to 2014?
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3. The data we have been looking at includes renewable energy sources excluding hydroelectric power, which is tabulated separately. Now select “Renewable Energy with Hydro” from the Display menu. Which nation has the greatest hydroelectric capacity?
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4. What has been the percent increase in hydropower versus the percent increase for other renewables in China from 2013 to 2014? (To determine percent increase, first determine the difference between the two years, and then divide by the original number. Multiply the result times 100 for percent.)
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5. At the conclusion of the Conventional Energy chapter, we saw that China’s primary fuel supply, coal, would only last for around 30 years at the current rate of consumption. What do recent trends in renewables in China suggest about its energy future?
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6. Create a line graph showing the top five solar energy consumers’ trends from 2009 to 2014. To do, so, select “Line Graph” for Graph Type and “Solar Energy” for Data Set. Which country’s solar capacity has increased the most over this time period?
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7.Which nation leads the world in solar power?
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8. Next we will look at trends for wind power consumption for the top five nations in this category. To do so, select “Wind Energy” from the Data Set menu. What nation leads the world in wind energy consumption?
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9. What was the percent increase in wind power capacity from 2005 to 2014 for China compared with the United States? (To determine percent increase, first find the difference and then divide by the starting number. Multiply the result times 100.)
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10. What do the data in the graphs we have analyzed suggest about trends in global energy production?
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